The Montgomery County Commission approved the placement of the Purple Heart road signs on Highway 161 and on Highway 19 during a meeting on April 16.

The signs were put up by the Missouri Department of Transportation on April 28. Signs are located near the Missouri River Bridge in Hermann on Highway 19, the Pike-Montgomery county border on Highway 161 outside Middletown and the Audrain-Montgomery county border on Highway 19 outside of Martinsburg. They are displayed on the existing AGRI Ready sign posts.

“I thought it was a good project,” 1st District Commissioner Dave Teeter said. “There’s no doubt about that. We had to get permission from MODOT for anything along their right of way, so that was a process of getting approved and signed. It doesn’t block disability and it can’t be on any of their existing signs, so the county had to put on a sign or a post in order to do it. So when the Agri-Ready folks put their signs up, they did that themselves. They put them on MoDOT’s post. But MoDOT said they can’t put them on their post. So they had to put up an additional post to put up those Agri-Ready signs.”

Jeff Niemeyer, MoDOT’s Area Engineer for the Northeast District, said the Purple Heart signs can’t be put up on the interstates since they’re federally regulated highways.

“I think the Purple Heart signs are allowed only on freeways and under,” Niemeyer said. “It has to do with speed limits. Pretty much, federal highways in general don’t like any signs that are not regulatory, so basically speed limits and warning signs are really all that they want on the right of way. Even with the city limit signs and population signs, they’re all getting phased out with the new updates. We got a big request for the Purple Heart signs, so we decided to allow them on our more minor routes.”

Niemeyer said once the county gets permission from MoDOT to put up a Purple Heart road sign, a sign agreement must be made.

“We have to do a sign agreement because the Purple Heart signs are put up and maintained (by the county),” Niemeyer said. “That way, it’s clear that if it gets hit, we’ll know who to call and get those put up. Most of the other signs, like the speed limit signs and stop signs, we take care of all of those.”

On Nov. 21, 2024, Montgomery County was named a Purple Heart County after the commission signed a proclamation. There are over 100 Purple Heart Counties that are designated in Missouri. In order to receive a Purple Heart, the county must want to honor its citizens who have received the Purple Heart Medal and their veterans.

The Purple Heart is a military medal awarded in the name of the President of the United States to those wounded or killed during service on or after April 5, 1917. It is the oldest military decoration in the country and is awarded for service and bravery.

In September 2025, five Purple Heart recipients from the Montgomery County area were honored during a ceremony at the Montgomery County High School gymnasium for their courage, sacrifice and dedication to the military. They were Fred Bohl, Roy Dooley, Harry Johnson, Roy Walton and Tracy Walton.

Also last year, Montgomery City and Wellsville were named Purple Heart cities.